Consider this. A very common rating for the audio power out of
a decoder is one watt. One watt of power from a 10-volt sup-
ply (a low value for the DC generated off a DCC waveform) will
consume 0.1 amp when making a lot of noise. A running HO
loco will consume probably ½ amp under the same conditions.
Thus, the sound decoder only increases the power needed for
the loco by about 20% when running hard.
6. BEMF never works for consisted locos
Absolute statements are always wrong.
“Can have issues”, yes. “Is more sensitive to loco and decoder
differences”, yes.
Let’s use my club’s experience again. We have six consists of
two or three locos that we use on a regular basis. All but one
“After start-up, a sound decoder does not
use appreciably more power than a non-
sound decoder.”
5: Tsunami sound decoder in Atlas C-424 HO-scale loco.
5
